No New Private Prison in Goodyear!

The Arizona Department of Corrections has issued a Request for Proposal to private prison corporations to build 5,000 new for-profit private prison beds in Arizona. Troubled private prison corporation GEO Group has submitted a proposal to build a massive private prison of between 2,000 and 5,000 beds in Goodyear, Arizona.

Private prisons are bad for public safety, bad for the economy, and bad for the communities in which they are based.

Private prisons are unsafe. If the Kingman escapes did not prove this point sufficiently, there is a host of federal research data and published media accounts to verify it. US Department of Justice, which found that “Privately operated facilities have a significantly lower staffing level than publicly operated prisons and lack MIS support.” They also report a significantly higher rate of assaults on staff and inmates.

While private prisons enrich shareholders and top prison corporation executives, they do not save taxpayers money or result in economic development. Private prisons are not saving money in Arizona. The Arizona Department of Corrections has done a cost comparison analysis every year since 2005, and the results are consistent. The most recent of these, from 2009, shows that the State paid private prisons $55.89 for each medium-custody inmate per day compared to a daily cost of $48.13 per medium-custody inmate in state facilities.

Despite the claims of private prison corporations, prisons do not encourage economic growth for small rural communities. A study by researchers at Washington State University showed that prisons actually hurt long-term economic growth in small rural communities. And a new report (not yet published) by the same researchers at the Washington argues that privatization places downward pressure on staffing, pay and benefits for all prisons in the state. As a consequence, prisons not only fail to help but appear to harm host communities. GEO Group, the company proposing the Goodyear facility, has a long and troubled history. In Texas, GEO’s Reeves County Detention Center has twice erupted in riots after a series of prisoner deaths. Arizona prisoners held at the same facility went on hunger strike to be brought back to Arizona. A GEO youth prison in Mississippi was recently sued by youth claiming that “barbaric, unconstitutional conditions” permeated the “dangerously understaffed” facility where “corruption and violence is rampant.” A similar GEO youth facility in Texas shuttered after unsafe and unsanitary conditions were found. Last year, GEO agreed to pay a $2.9 million settlement in a lawsuit that claimed that at six facilities an illegal policy of strip-searching all pretrial detainees. The solution to Goodyear’s economic future and well as our state's prison system and our astronomical recidivism rate is not more incarceration, but less. Sentencing reforms have been proven to work in many other states. They save millions of taxpayer dollars and improve public safety by helping to address the issues that lead to illegal behavior--mental illness, substance abuse, and economic insecurity.

Letter to

RepresentativeJerry Weiers

MayorGeorgia Lord

CouncilmemberJoe Pizzillo

and 8 others

RepresentativeSteve Montenegro

SenatorJohn Nelson

CouncilmemberSheri Lauritano

CouncilmemberGary Gelzer

CouncilmemberWally Campbell

CouncilmemberBill Stipp

Vice MayorJoanne Osborne

Public Officials

I write to urge you to oppose the construction of a new private prison in Goodyear. The Arizona Department of Corrections has issued a Request for Proposal to for-profit prison companies for 5,000 new prison beds in Arizona. This proposal is bad for Arizona and bad for Goodyear. Having multiple prisons in our community will place a strain on our limited water supply and tax city infrastructure like waste water and roads. It will bring more traffic and pollution to our town. And there is no guarantee that it will bring good jobs to local citizens, despite the claims of prison backers.

For-profit incarceration is a failed experiment. Private facilities do not save the state money. They are unsafe for prisoners, staff, and the surrounding community. And the corporations that make millions from them wield unchecked influence in Arizona politics.

GEO Group, the company proposing the Goodyear facility, has a long and troubled history. In Texas, GEO’s Reeves County Detention Center has twice erupted in riots after a series of prisoner deaths. Arizona prisoners held at the same facility went on hunger strike to be brought back to Arizona. A GEO youth prison in Mississippi was recently sued by youth claiming that “barbaric, unconstitutional conditions” permeated the “dangerously understaffed” facility where “corruption and violence is rampant.” A similar GEO youth facility in Texas shuttered after unsafe and unsanitary conditions were found. Last year, GEO agreed to pay a $2.9 million settlement in a lawsuit that claimed that at six facilities an illegal policy of strip-searching all pretrial detainees.

Private prisons are bad for public safety, bad for our economy, and bad for the communities in which they are based. Please don't bring a private prison to Goodyear!